How
do I find or open the Normal Template in Microsoft Word? (Word 97-2019)

The normal template is central to your use of Word. It holds
many of your defaults and your own customizations or modifications to Word.
It is possible that something outside of it does not let you save changes
you make to it without opening it directly. There are times when the simplest way to
change defaults in Microsoft Word is to open the Normal.dot or
Normal.dotm template. Other times you need to find it so you can open
the containing folder and rename the template for diagnostic work. The
normal template will always be found in the user templates folder, which has
different default locations in different versions of Word and different
operating systems. That location can be changed in the Word options by the
user.

At the bottom of the vba Editor window is something
called the Immediate window. (Press Ctrl+G to activate this window if
you don't see it.) Click in that Immediate window.

Type the following (or copy it from here and paste it):

application.NormalTemplate.OpenAsDocument

Press Enter

Close the vba Editor.

You are now in the Normal.dot template (Word 97-2003) or
Normal.dotm template (Word 2007-2019)

Make your changes and save it. If you are curious about
where you can find it in the future, use Save As and look at where Word
is planning on saving it.

Your Word program only uses one Normal template. Your computer
may have more than one but Word only uses one. If there is more than
one such template on your computer, this (vba) is the only way I
know of to be sure that the Normal template you open is the one your
version of Word is using! If you have multiple versions of Word on your
computer, each should have its own template.

Note that you should never put any
text in the Normal template.

Many diagnostics require that you rename the normal template.
Sometimes, something in the normal template is causing problems in your use of
Word. It
is located in your
user templates folder. Note, some advisors mistakenly tell
you to delete the normal template. Renaming it will accomplish the same purpose:
Word will create a new fresh normal template the next time it starts. However,
if there are valuable customizations in the normal template like macros,
AutoText entries, or styles, if it is renamed rather than deleted, those
customizations can be recovered. If you have not changed any of the defaults in
your Word normal template, there may not be one. (This is unusual, but
possible.)

By default, the normal template (and user templates files) are stored in the following location:

In Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\ user name
\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates

In Windows Vista or in Windows 7-10 C:\Users\ user name
\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

On a Mac, I've been told it is ~/Library/Application
Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates (Word 2011 and earlier) and
~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content/Templates (Word
2016 and later)

Beginning with Office 2013 (Office 365) the default folder location
for most user-created templates has been
moved to a subfolder of the user's Documents folder: Custom Office Templates.
However, the location of the normal template will still be in the user
templates folder which remains the default folder unless changed by the
user. That is, the location of the normal template will still be in the file
designated as the user templates folder, but that folder will be different from
the folder holding most user templates which is now called the Custom Office
Templates folder. Confused? Thank you, Microsoft.

Note you can change the location of user templates files. That is done in
advanced options. If you have done so, you need to check there for your
location.

If you rename or delete your normal template, it will not be recreated by
Word until such time as you make a change to your defaults. If you have an
Add-In that prevents saving changes to the normal template, then it will not be
created. Word will operate fine without a Normal template, using its defaults.

To find the normal template in any version of Word on any
Windows operating system you can do the following.

At the bottom of the vba Editor window is something
called the Immediate window. (Press Ctrl+G to activate this window if
you don't see it.) Click in that Immediate window.

Type the following (or copy it from here and paste it):

debug.print application.NormalTemplate.Path

Press Enter

The location of your normal template for your Word
installation shows just below what you typed. If you copy this and paste
it into the location bar in Windows Explorer, you will be taken to the
folder containing the normal template.

You can also use Windows Search function.

The normal template will almost always be found somewhere within
the User profile. Finding it using Windows is a bit more complicated and depends
on the operating system you are using. The thing is that by default the
Templates folder used by any version of Word (other than Word 2013/365) is a
hidden system folder. In a regular search, Windows skips such folders. You
need to access the search options and tell Windows to look in hidden and system
folders. Generally, you are able to access these options after you complete a
search with no results.

In Windows 8.1 the Advanced Options are available immediately:

Opening the Normal template after you find it:

If you found the normal template in a folder so you could open that
template, remember that you need to use File > Open within Word to open
it or, from Windows, right-click on the icon and select Open from the
context menu. If you double-click on it, you will create a new document,
not open it. This is true of all
templates in Microsoft Word .

How to "dirty" the Normal Template so that changes to AutoTexts, macros, and
Styles put in Normal from other Files will be saved.

Some changes made to the template are not reflected as a "change" by Word
such that pressing Ctrl+S (or using File > Save) will save them. You can force
the "changed" or "dirty" state by doing the following:

Type any letter. Use the backspace key to erase it. Do not use Undo or
Ctrl+Z. Then press Ctrl+S to save.

If the Alt+F11 combination to open the VBA editor isn't working there are
at least two possibilities.

The first is that you are pressing the keys in sequence and Word is
grabbing the Alt press to bring up its tooltips.

The second is that some other program outside of Word is hijacking
the use of function keys. This can be a laptop BIOS or can be another
utility program like SnagIt.

The first is most likely and you can tell if that is what is happening if
the tooltips pop up on the ribbon. See below. Pressing Alt a second
time gets rid of them and then you want to press Alt+F11 together.

A workaround for getting to the Visual Basic Editor without
the keyboard shortcut is to go
into Visual Basic in Word and open it from there. In the Ribbon versions of
Word you can find the button for this on the
Developer Tab.